The first Monday in May is usually the time when Katy Perry serves some of the iconic Met Gala looks, but this year she did not attend. However, she still got into the spotlight thanks to the viral AI-generated images of her. Some of the photos were so realistic they were able to fool Katy’s own mother. So, who was there on the floral Met carpet – Was it Katy Perry, or was it AI?
Katy debunks viral AI Met Gala Photos
Katy shared the AI Photos on her Instagram with the caption: “Couldn’t make it to the MET, had to work”.
The image was so convincing that her own mom found it believable, and commented on the dress. The photo does not have any usual AI-tells, and the only imperfection eagle-eyed fans have noticed was the wrong color of the carpet. However, another photo followed that fixed the carpet issue and perfectly copied the background on the Met steps.
Other celebrities also wore fake ‘AI-Designer gowns’
Katy’s photos got the most attention, but she was not the only one dressed by an AI-generator. There is a photo of Rihanna – who was actually at home, sick with the flu, and a photo of Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, etc. Even though these photos were interesting and fun, they show that it is becoming incredibly easy to make a convincing fake image. Recently, there was an AI-Deep Fake scandal involving Taylor Swift, and in the past year there were numerous viral images conveying fake news, ID-scams, etc.
Recently, over 200 artists, along with Katty Perry herself – signed an open letter pleading with technology companies to “cease the use of artificial intelligence to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists”.
How to tell if an image is AI-generated
With AI-generators working to a level of near perfection, how can we (along with Katy Perry’s mom) make sure that what we can see is not fake?
Media platforms such as Meta plan to start labeling AI-generated images, and even though they initially wanted to start in May, it has not happened yet. Datatechvibe reported that “The labels will apply to images from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Adobe, Midjourney and Shutterstock — but only once those companies start including watermarks and other technical metadata in images created by their software”. So for now, we can only check by ourselves and make sure to verify the sources.
WasItAI was not fooled by the Met Gala AI creations, so it can be used as a reliable way to tell if an image is AI-generated or made by a human.